


Security

by dreamsofspike



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-04
Updated: 2010-09-04
Packaged: 2017-10-11 11:10:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/111759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsofspike/pseuds/dreamsofspike
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it's the only thing that works, to drive back the dark memories and give him some peace...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Security

**Author's Note:**

> WARNINGS: reference to past rape, violence; current polygamous relationship

Sometimes Barney has nightmares.

He's never said much to Lily and Marshall about the night that drove him to request this secret arrangement of theirs. Yes, they know the technical facts of the situation, the forced sexual encounter that led him to seek their protection, not from further attackers, but from his own careless, self-destructive behavior -- but he's never ventured to share the dark details of the incident with his two doms.

But there are nights when Lily is awakened by the soft sound of the whimpers torn from his throat, and the fine trembling of his slim form in the bed between them. Marshall is a heavier sleeper, and is not usually aware of it -- but it breaks Lily's heart to see the pain he tries so hard to hide, revealed by his subconscious in his dreams.

She knows better than to touch him.

Once before, she did, and he reacted in terror, scrambling from the bed with a yelp, coming to awareness with wide, fearful eyes, huddled in the corner of the room. In the midst of his nightmares, the feeling of physical touch is far from a comfort to him.

She rises carefully from the bed and goes to the closet, taking from it a familiar, well-worn blanket. It's soft and smoothed by many years of use, and she can't look at it without remembering the months immediately following the incident, when Barney grew unusually attached to it, to the point that he couldn't sleep without it.

He eventually moved past that regression, a normal symptom of his trauma -- but Lily thinks its might still bring him some comfort now.

She goes to the bed and drapes it over his shivering body, then wraps her arms around and pulls him close, guessing that if he feels only the softness and security of the embrace, and not the feeling of her actual arms around him, he might take comfort from it and be able to find some solace.

She's not wrong.

After a few moments, the whimpering and trembling begin to subside, as he nestles closer in his sleep. She holds him close and closes her eyes, drifting off again, content in the knowledge that she has done what she can to offer him some respite from the nightmare of his past...

... until next time.


End file.
